“The longer and more painfully Andy Murray stays in, the better for us,” he said. “His US Open final against Novak Djokovic was our best-ever single event with £67 million going through our exchange.

“Rafa Nadal’s exit on Monday saw £13 million staked, which was unusually high for a first-round match.” Betfair, which saw off a £988 million takeover approach from private equity firm CVC last month, today revealed that pre-tax profits fell 27% last year to £38 million but increased its dividend by 27% to 13p a share. Revenues were flat at £387 million.

“It has been a year of transition,” said Corcoran. “We lost revenues from places where the regulations changed but steadily built up more sustainable, regulated income.”

CVC’s final proposed offer was 920p a share, and today the shares were down 4p at 826p. Under its new management, Betfair is concentrating on developing its fixed-odds Sportsbook website.